Field
Aspects of the present invention generally relate to an image forming apparatus, a control method, and a program.
Description of the Related Art
An image forming apparatus forms an image on a sheet by using a printing material such as toner. Generally, the printing material is contained in a container unit such as a cartridge.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-343621 discusses a technique for estimating an amount of toner remaining within the cartridge based on a dot count value of raster data. Specifically, a toner consumption amount is calculated based on the dot count value of the raster data, and that toner consumption amount is subtracted from a current toner remaining amount to calculate a new toner remaining amount. Herein, the toner consumption amount is generally calculated by multiplying the dot count value of the raster data by a toner consumption coefficient previously determined at each apparatus.
However, the toner consumption amount is not always simply proportional to the dot count value of the raster data.
For example, if there is any variation in density control that changes a development bias voltage according to a density setting made by the user or pulse width control that changes an exposure amount of one dot according to a printing mode setting made by the user, an error in the estimated toner consumption amount may become greater.